Medals

It’s not often that a group of medals offered at auction includes two that were in fact officially revoked. However, a lot that appeared at an East Yorkshire auction house on June 27 reflected a notorious tale of colonial corruption.

A fine example of the Libertas Americana silver medal is estimated to fetch between £50,000-80,000 at Anderson & Garland’s Fine Silver and Objects of Vertu auction in Newcastle on July 22.

A lot offering a Shanghai Municipal Jubilee Medal, November 17, 1893, proved so appealing that it sold at five times the top estimate.

As this year commemorates VE and VJ days, there are likely to be even more collectors and dealers than usual converging on the first of 2025’s biannual Britannia Medal Fairs on Sunday, May 11.

A Renaissance gilt bronze medal made to mark the marriage of Queen Mary I (1516-58) and King Philip II (1527-98) sold for £15,500 at Sloane Street Auctions (26.5% buyer’s premium).

An atypical entry to the March 4-9 sale at the Harwich antiquities specialist TimeLine is this gold medal struck in Philadelphia following the sinking of American steamship Casper, on December 23, 1928.

Offered by Thomas Miller (24% buyer’s premium) in Newcastle was a large silver medal struck to mark the maiden voyage of the SS Normandie from Le Havre to New York on May 29, 1935. She took the Blue Riband at the first attempt.

I was very interested to see your story on the gold medal for the Paris Exposition Universelle 1900 (News, ATG No 2654).

A rare James II and Queen Mary of Modena silver medal commemorating a Spanish shipwreck recovered in 1687 sold for four times the top estimate.

A temporary export block has been placed on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Polar Medal in the hope a buyer in the UK can pay £1.7m.

By all accounts, the Bulgarian prince and later Tsar Ferdinand I was a passionate railway enthusiast.

Among the highlights of The Premier Sale at St James’s Auctions on September 27 is this Battle of Culloden gold commemorative medal.

The esteem in which British botanist William Lawrence Balls (1882-1960) was held is obvious from lots offered at Norfolk auction house Keys (25% buyer’s premium) on July 26-28.

A Queen’s Gallantry Medal in its case of issue awarded to a police constable who helped to catch two violent escaped prisoners sold for £2400 at auction.